Lawyers for President Jacob Zuma are on Wednesday expected to file their heads of argument in the DA’s application to review the decision to drop corruption charges against him.

The case involves the so-called “spy tapes”, which the Democratic Alliance says contain enough information to proceed with a review application of the decision to drop the charges.

The DA was handed the spy tapes last year after the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the NPA had to comply with a previous order to release the tapes. Zuma opposed the move.

The recordings, internal memoranda, reports and minutes of meetings dealing with the contents of the recordings, had to be provided.

The tapes, containing recorded phone conversations, allegedly revealed collusion between the former head of the directorate of special operations – the now defunct Scorpions – Leonard McCarthy, and the National Prosecuting Authority’s former head Bulelani Ngcuka to manipulate the prosecution of Zuma before the ANC’s Polokwane conference in 2007.

Zuma was elected ANC president at the conference. Former president Thabo Mbeki had been a contender for another term.

The corruption charges were dropped shortly before Zuma was sworn in as president in 2009.

Then acting national director of public prosecutions Mokotedi Mpshe said the tapes showed a political conspiracy against Zuma and so the case could not continue.

City Press reported on Tuesday that the senior prosecutor in the corruption case against Zuma broke ranks with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and maintained that the charges should never have been dropped.

Advocate Billy Downer submitted an affidavit in which he contradicted some of the statements made by advocate Willie Hofmeyr, who filed the main affidavit on behalf of the NPA.

In the affidavit Hofmeyr filed in March, he defended the NPA’s decision to drop the case against Zuma, arguing that the decision was taken with regard to abuse of prosecutorial process and not just based on the merits of the charges.

But in his affidavit, Downer revealed that even though he was “reduced to tears” by the contents of the spy tapes, he felt their contents did not justify a decision to stop the prosecution. News24